The directed delivery of therapeutic agents to their site of action in the human body (e.g., antibiotics, drugs for the treatment of cancer, neuroprotective drugs or drugs for the treatment of any disorder), offers great advantages over a systemic administration of therapeutic agents.
Particularly useful would be compounds and methods to deliver therapeutic agents across the blood-brain barrier to the central nervous system or to the inner ear. This type of delivery would allow therapeutic agents to be specifically targeted to produce a neuroprotective therapeutic effect. Delivery of compounds across the blood-brain barrier can be mediated by glutathione-conjugation as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,794.
Thus, there is a need for synthetic methods to prepare a compound that can be linked to a therapeutic agent and conjugated with glutathione to provide directed delivery.
Certain specific carbamoyl thioesters have also been used to deter ethanol consumption and to treat glutamate-related disorders, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,153,219 and 6,156,794.
There exists a need for additional methods and compositions to deter ethanol consumption by humans and to treat glutamate-related disorders (such as glutamate-related neurodegenerative disorders) with non-toxic glutamate antagonists.